Howard, Duncan negotiations differed

Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard (12) grabs a pass while being guarded by San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

When the trade deadline approached a dozen years ago, the Spurs treated it no differently than any season since Gregg Popovich began running the club's basketball operations in 1994.

Popovich was head coach and general manager in 2000, with assistant R.C. Buford still two years away from promotion to GM. They answered the phones and made a few calls of their own looking for ways to improve a roster that was good enough to win 53 games.

They believed their team could compete for a second NBA title until Tim Duncan suffered a knee injury shortly before the start of the playoffs.

Though every GM in the league knew Duncan would become a free agent in little more than three months, nobody phoned the Spurs to ask what it would take to interest them in a trade for the first-team All-NBA power forward.

That had everything to do with Duncan and his approach to his profession, and a bit to do with the times.

Duncan didn't promise the Spurs he would re-sign with them that summer, but he didn't demand a trade and have his agent present them a list of acceptable trade targets, either.

By refusing to turn his pending free agency into a circus of speculation, he spared the Spurs and their fans a few months of hand-wringing.

Rumors circulated more slowly in those pre-Twitter days, and there was no Duncan dirt to deal anyway.

Howard followed the end of the lockout by telling his team he intended to opt out of his contract and had no intention of re-signing with a team he claimed did not give him enough of a voice in personnel matters.

Then his agent gave Orlando general manager Otis Smith a list of teams with which Howard would be happy to sign if Smith could make an acceptable deal with one of them.

Howard insists all he wants is to play for a team capable of winning a title. Smith, an original Magic player, asserts the Magic can be that team if Howard will just remain in Orlando and allow him to tweak the roster.

Magic owner Rich DeVos, now 86, says he considers Howard “like a son.” He doesn't want to lose him under any circumstance, and this constrains the team's executives.

Orlando fandom views this game of deadline-day chicken with dread that is informed by the nightmare experience of 1996.

Howard was to arrive in San Antonio with the Magic in the wee hours this morning after a Tuesday night game at Orlando's Amway Center that may have been his last there in a Magic uniform.

Spurs fans who turn up at the AT&T Center tonight will get the first tangible clue that Howard is headed elsewhere if his team reports he has come down with an ailment that prevents him from suiting up.

Take your pick: Lower back spasms or flulike symptoms can keep Howard from risking a trade-killing injury.

And if Howard plays against Duncan and the Spurs?

Feel free to presume Orlando is rolling the dice it can convince him to stay.

Then expect Popovich to order his players to use Hack-A-Howard tactics if the game is close in the fourth quarter.

Then we can all ponder if Orlando might have been spared the Howard angst if he had simply made more than 3,310 of the 5,610 free throws he has taken in his eight-plus seasons.